Avalanche on Mount Mizhirgi kills 11 climbers; six remain missing

An avalanche ran down Mount Mizhirgi in Russia's Kabardino-Balkaria republic at about 5 p.m. local time on 6 September and hit a climbing party of 33. Regional emergency officials said on Monday that 11 people were dead, six were injured and in hospital, ten had walked off the mountain on their own, and six were still missing.

Mizhirgi, also spelled Mejhergi or Mishirgi, sits in the Bezengi wall near Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. Climbing reports put the party at about 5,000 metres when the slope broke. Helicopter pilot Alexander Davydov filmed the plume. Anna Piunova of Mountain Club circulated the first compiled casualty list among Russian climbers on Sunday night.

Early statements said 15 people had been caught. Officials later said the whole group numbered 33 and that 15 of them were on the route at the moment of the slide. The revised arithmetic is the one now used by the Ministry of Emergency Situations: 11 dead, 6 injured, 10 self-evacuated, 6 unaccounted for.

The search

By Monday morning more than 50 rescuers were on the mountain, later raised to about 56, including the Elbrus high-altitude team. Kabardino-Balkaria head Kazbek Kokov said the search was concentrated in the upper Bezengi valley. Weather and a further avalanche risk were slowing the work. Officials said Mi-8 military helicopters and civilian machines would fly if the sky allowed.

The injured six were flown out. The ten who descended unaided reached lower camps without a helicopter. Names of the dead and missing had not been published in the first official notes on Monday.

Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal file for alleged negligence. That is standard after a mass casualty in the mountains. It does not yet say whether the charge will land on a guide, a club, a weather desk or no one. Safety rules for commercial and club groups in the Caucasus require a registered route, a weather check and a decision to turn around. Whether those steps were taken is the question the investigators have put on paper.

Why this slope

Bezengi is a classic high camp for Russian and foreign parties aiming at the north wall peaks. September is late in the summer season. Snow that fell in August sits on older ice. Afternoon warming is a known trigger. A group of 33 is large for a single rope line on that terrain, which is why the first reports split the party between people on the route and people lower down.

Elbrus and the nearby valleys see fatal avalanches most years. A double-digit death count in one slide is rarer. The open variable on Monday was the six missing climbers. If they are found alive, the event stays a severe accident. If they are not, the toll moves to 17 and the negligence file will be read against a larger number.

Kokov issued condolences and said the search would continue. Until the six are accounted for, the official total is incomplete by design.